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Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Rabbi Michael Lerner on the Cry for Relief from Egypt

Egypt is becoming a hotspot. It's people cry out for the end of an oppressive regime. With revolution in the air, I'm embarrassed to say that I hadn't realized the extent to which the nation had problems until I came across this video.

Upon watching, I was both stunned and moved. I've recently done a quick search to catch up on the situation, and it appears that the Huffington Post has an nice synopsis. After reading, I feel I should say something, but I have yet to find my voice in all of this.

Therefore, I'm going to point everyone to someone who knows more than I, Rabbi Michael Lerner. If there is hope in this situation, Lerner draws it out by saying,

In normal times, when the forces of repression seem to be winning, this kind of thinking [that generosity and caring rather than force can lead to national security] is dismissed as "utopian" by the "realists" who shape public political discourse. But when events like the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt occur, for a moment the politicians and media are stunned enough to allow a different kind of thinking to emerge, the kind of thinking that acknowledged that underneath all the "business as usual" behaviour of the world's peoples, the yearning for a world based on solidarity, caring for each other, freedom, self-determination, justice, non-violence and yes, even love and generosity, remains a potent and unquenchable thirst that may be temporarily repressed but never fully extinguished.